R. Aquila - Vol. 10, December 2004, Issue 4
Testo Immagini Bibliografia Summary Indice
L’affidabilità di olanzapina nella
prevenzione delle ricadute della patologia schizofrenica
Reliability of olanzapine in preventing schizophrenic relapses
Schizophrenia is one of the most severe psychiatric illnesses and its evolution over lifetime has been well characterized by Lieberman and subdivided into four phases: premorbid, prodromici, progressive, and residual. Delay in the treatment of the first episode is a crucial factor in clinical relapse and disease progression; likewise, early positive, negative and cognitive symptom treatment could lead to fair recovery of global function. Hence, the ultimate goal in the treatment of schizophrenia is not the simple treatment of the acute phase, but rather a long-term one, that could enable to prevent clinical relapses and provide patients with a better quality of life.
The introduction of new generation antipsychotics as first line drugs is one of the major innovations of drug treatment of schizophrenia in the last ten years. The present review analyzes several comparative trials of atypical antipsychotics in order to identify their efficacy and safety parameters that may influence relapse prevention, compliance, quality of life and social reintegration in schizophrenic patients.